The sales price is listed at slightly more than $26 million at Blockshopper.com, a news and market data service, making this the most expensive residential sale in Los Angeles area so far this year. Property records show that the contemporary house, built in 1996, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms. Hanks did not respond to requests for comment.

Hanks, 53, won Oscars for his starring roles in "Forrest Gump" (1994) and " Philadelphia" (1993) and received lead actor nominations for "Big" (1988), "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) and "Cast Away" (2000), which he also produced. He played symbolist Robert Langdon in "The Da Vinci Code" (2006) and "Angels & Demons" (2009) and is the voice of Woody in the "Toy Story" movies.

It's not always easy to pinpoint the highest-priced sale of the year. Mega-million-dollar transactions can take place outside of the Multiple Listing Service, with the homes marketed by agents as "pocket listings." Other times, the buyer and seller work through lawyers, and a transaction is discovered only when the sale is recorded with the county.

Here are some of the top residential sales in the L.A. area last year, as identified by real estate data provider PropertyShark.com and previous Times reports.

•The biggest sale of the year appears to have been the Beverly Hills home of Simon Ramo, co-founder of the aerospace and defense company TRW, to DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg,for $35 million. Public records show the 8,704-square-foot home was built in 1965, has four bedrooms and eight bathrooms and sits on 6.3 acres. The house was not on the market, and Katzenberg's spokesman told The Times he had no comment about the late October transaction, taken in a trust, but local real estate agents confirmed that he was the buyer.

•In April, a Beverly Hills mansion sold for $31.5 million. The 27,000-square-foot French Normandy on 2 acres has 10 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and seven fireplaces. The newly built Richard Landry-designed home has three-stories, including a circular library with a glass floor revealing a 2,500-bottle wine cellar below. The house also has an indoor swimming pool with a gym. Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Simon Darvish of Audrey Max Estates, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer, according to the MLS.

•Selling for $26.5 million in July was a gated 25,000-square-foot home in Bel-Air with eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and city and ocean views on 1.25 acres.

In March, a Bel-Air property sold for $22 million. Public records show a 10,616-square-foot home built in 2006 with four bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

•A residential property in Beverly Hills' Trousdale Estates sold in late December for $19.9 million. It has six bedrooms and nine bathrooms in 7,459 square feet, according to the L.A. County Assessor's Office.

Actor put his all into this role

Walton Goggins, who starred in the crime drama "The Shield" from 2002 to 2008, is putting his remodeled Hollywood Hills home on the market for $1,175,000.

Goggins wanted the three-bedroom, three-bathroom house to blend traditional and modern elements and establish seamless indoor-outdoor flow while retaining the home's original form. "The bones were there," he said of the 1960s house.

The actor, who was born in Alabama, came to Los Angeles from Georgia in 1991.

"I moved 14 times in 11 years," he said of his early years in the business.

Goggins, 38, at first leased the post-and-beam home from a friend. "I called him shortly thereafter and said, ‘You know, I can't leave this house. You might as well sell it to me now,' " he said. Goggins became a homeowner in 2001 with the $512,000 purchase. "I knew that given enough time this house could accurately reflect me as person."

During his tenure in the house, Goggins worked on it with a contractor friend. "While I'm not as handy as a lot of people, I'm good — as we say in the South — at fetching and toting."

Inside, they installed hardwood floors, remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms, redid both fireplaces, added lighting and resurfaced the garage. Outside, they built fences, created outdoor seating, put in fountains and replaced the roof and gutters.

Involved in every step, Goggins even slept in the house without windows and doors while the new ones were being installed. "It made more sense than checking into a hotel," he said.

Set in a grove of oaks, the two-story house has clerestory windows in the sun room and wood-beamed ceilings in the guest quarters. The guest suite includes a sitting room with a double-sided fireplace shared by an office/bedroom, kitchen area and bathroom.

Although Goggins said he wasn't really looking to move, he has happened upon another property that feels like home too. He'll miss walking through the 1,600-square-foot Hollywood Hills house and seeing his part in it everywhere. "I poured my heart and soul into it," he said. "The house truly is an extension of me."

He has enjoyed the privacy of living in a home on a small street, having eight parking spaces, getting to know the people in his Laurel Canyon neighborhood, going to Lilly's at the Canyon Country Store for coffee and picking up takeout food from Pace.

"Nineteen years ago, I used to dream about living in the Hollywood Hills, and I would imagine myself driving up these streets and coming home," he said. But, he added, "it feels like I've taken this home as far as I can."

Goggins will be in Fox's alien abduction film "Predators," directed by Nimród Antal and set for July release, and the Screen Gems' thriller "Straw Dogs" (2011), directed by Rod Lurie. He is now shooting the FX crime drama "Justified," which premieres in mid-March.